Pagan babies! Oh noes!

So, I am late for my blog post on the 13th, but since I have yet to go to sleep, I am going to go ahead and post it now. Take that, rules! I do what I want!

It was requested that I talk a little bit about my Pagan-ism or Pagan-ality, or whatever you like calling it, and so I plan to do just that.

I have been Pagan for as long as I can remember. Grandma was described as a "kitchen witch" and was very superstitious about the weirdest things. She kept stones and a crystal ball (though she couldn't tell you why) but to all her acquaintances she was Lutheran, I think.... so the story goes. My mom used to be very Pagan herself, but then decided eventually (after having us try on several other religions in the meantime) that Jesus was all powerful, and was born on the 25th of December, and that he died for my sins and all that. That was when I was about eleven and religion had really started to matter to me.

I had my grandmother's crystal ball, I had my own tarot cards, I had books on the subject to further my education on it, and suddenly, to my mother, it was wrong. Those things her mom told her, those "powers" she was born with; they all meant nothing. And now I was some sort of sinner... To this day we still have fights about it, mostly because she thinks her mom was wrong all that time and taught her the wrong way at life or something. When we fight, I never give in though, and at times, she really seems to miss the way she was.

As for the children, I am raising them Pagan as well. I do talk to them about other beliefs and I tell them that, when and if the time comes for them to believe in something else, that is between them and the gods. It's out of my hands once they make that choice and I will never turn them out for the things they believe, as long as they never try to cast me out for my beliefs.

We do celebrate Yule, and they believe in Santa. To make life easier, we have a Yule celebration on the 22nd of December for the solstice, and then they open their gifts on the 25th because the relatives all celebrate then so it just makes life easier to open the gifts then. More or less we just call it the "Holiday Season" and it covers a broad spectrum of things.

I do hope that, even if they are not Pagan as they grow, that their tolerance of other beliefs will remain. Nothing in this world is worth fighting over, especially when it comes to someone's place in "heaven".

That about covers it, I think. My best to you all and goodnight.